Southern California -- this just in

Federal officials launch probe of fatal California 200 accident

Federal authorities announced Monday that they were launching a review of the accident that killed eight people at the California 200 off-road race.

The Bureau of Land Management has jurisdiction over the land where the race occurred and issued a permit to the organizer of the California 200.

The BLM is "continuing to cooperate with other involved law enforcement agencies in the law enforcement investigation. We expect the review and investigations to be done expeditiously, but we have no specific completion date. We will issue further information as it becomes available," the organization said in a statement.

The probe comes amid new questions about safety at the California 200.

The company that sponsored the event told the federal
government that it had two men responsible for coordinating a response
to a medical emergency.

When contacted by The Times, one of those two men said he was not
assigned to any emergency or medical tasks at Saturday’s race, during
which a truck plowed into a crowd assembled alongside the course.

Permit documents for the event, which were released by the BLM, identified Arcadia resident Dave Hatcher, a
self-described volunteer for South El Monte-based MDR Productions, as
one of two contacts in case of a medical emergency at the race.

Hatcher said he has filled such a role at previous events but was
responsible on Saturday for managing a 30-mile race checkpoint.

“I didn’t remember that I was listed on there,” said Hatcher, when asked
about the permit.
MDR Productions paid the BLM a $95 fee to stage
the race on federal land, plus $5 for each participating competitor.

The other person named on the permit as a contact for emergency
response was Jim Williams of MDR Productions, which stands for Mojave
Desert Racing.

His phone number, which is listed on the permit, currently has no
voice mail that would make it possible to leave a message.
Patricia Williams, the primary contact for MDR Productions on the
federal permit, would not comment when approached by a reporter for The
Times on the night of the race.

Her company did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment on Sunday, and since the crash, her voice mail has been full.

Safety
tips on the MDR website say that spectators should be at least 100 feet
from the racing cars, but videos of this and earlier California 200
events suggest that spectators were much closer.

Six people died at the scene. Nine others were airlifted to local
hospitals, where two of them died later in the evening, said Officer Joaquin Zubieta of the
California Highway Patrol.

According to authorities, the
driver involved in the incident, identified as Brett M. Sloppy, 28, of
San Marcos, lost control of his truck after racing
up a hilly spot known as the "rock pile,'' which attracts throngs of
spectators every year. He was not arrested, and alcohol was not a factor
in the crash, authorities said. However, officers had to escort him
from the scene after spectators started "getting rowdy'' and shouted at
the racer.

Investigators hope to review footage from a camera attached to Sloppy's truck.